Press Release

Our Council members recognized that CIRI has not been really supporting the Tribal governments in their area. We tried to contact them to have a meeting with us, with no response. Therefore, we decided to submit a tax invoice to CIRI for FY 2011 for $500,000. Rather than sit down and discuss this issue with us, CIRI has submitted a lawsuit asking the court to determine if we do have the power to tax them.

Chickaloon Native Village, as a federally recognized Tribe, has the power to tax due to the Indian Tribal Governmental Tax Status Act of 1982. This is an annual income tax on our native regional corporation. This has nothing to do with land, property tax, or the Venetie Case.

We had hoped that this could be resolved internally between Chickaloon and CIRI. It was not our intention to discuss this issue in public, but when CIRI submitted the lawsuit, it became public knowledge and attracted the attention of the media. Our ideal outcome would be that CIRI steps up and truly supports its Tribal governments, so that we can continue to provide crucial government services instead of trying to drag us through the courts.